12/06/2012

It's Nuts

The other day my son was given this unususal and fun christmas ornament - by a real christmas buff.
It is a miniature German nutcracker - just like the one Clara is given in 'The Nutcracker'.

And it even works, see?

Now, these I have seen in shops in Germany, and I have discovered that they are hot collectors items,
and highly valued, if antique or made by one of the famous, German wooden toy makers!
The ones below are from the maker Ulbricht, and I found them on this aptly named website: http://www.nutcracker.com/ (...and that turns out to be the Moscow Ballet, ha ha!)

Around the world, theatre and ballet companies feature 'The Nutcracker' around christmastime - and in Copenhagen lots and lots of children have seen it in various productions, by either the Royal Danish Ballet or the Tivoli Pantomime Ballet. This year Tivoli is putting on a new production by Peter Bo Bendixen, with costume design by Her Majesty the Queen Margrethe.

I have only seen it once, in the 2001 production designed by Mikael Melbye, which was so glamorous and a little bit extra surreal. I look forward to the next time, as my son will accompany me, but I thought him a bit too young this year - I think maybe next year, when he is four...?

I enjoy ballet, though I am not in any way an afficionado. And ballets like this one - total showstopper extravaganzas, where all the tricks in the book are used, and no expense is spared productionwise - well, I dare you not to be swept away! Tchaikovskys music in itself is just so, so beautiful.

The story ('The Nutcracker and The Mouse King', a fairytale by E.T.A. Hoffmann from 1816) is plain crazy. Maybe it's a coming-of-age-tale, maybe it is about loosing the innocense of childhood (or maybe it's actually about holding on to it?) - and maybe Lewis Caroll was inspired by it, when he wrote 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' in the 1860s?

I shall not attempt to give you even the highlights of it, go Google! Or better still, find some beautiful bits to feast your eyes and ears on, on YouTube.